A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

A tiny bit of history. (Though lived about 3 miles from Lions in the 60's early in life, fan of the biggies (I loved Fuel Cars...Bernstein, Prudhome, Ivo, Garlits, you name it), 1st bracket raced starting after high school at O.C.I.R. in 1975 through the late 80's (I Won my first Wally Div. Bracket 3 Heavy Champ 1984-in a 250 car field. 2 teams A and B from each track (20 cars per team), from every participating track in the entire Western Div.6- it was the 1 year they did away with NHRA Div. 7 and combined it with Div. 6 and it was the magic year of my bracket racing career, track champ at multiple tracks (O.C.I.R. the last year, Famoso, Carlsbad, LA County, and another that escapes me), also towed to the Florida Winter E.T. Series in 83, 84, and 85 and found success(Best of Runner-Up 2K win in another 250 car field just weeks after winning my first Wally in 84 at Moroso Motorsports Park after driving 3 days from CA to West Palm Beach, with the same 63 Dodge Polara others there named the "Big White Refrigerator", against a lot of very fast company in sleek new button leaving diggers (Does Johnny Labouse and Scotty Richardson ring any bells), as I was foot braking my bracket car at 12.00 Flat (no cage or rollbar) and then made the first failed but super fun attempt at class racing in 1994-1997, I was somewhat competitive but the car certainly was not, it was the absolute slowest car in the category running in GF/SA).

Who inspired me to attempt Class Racing in Stock someday? Chad Langdon, and another who drove his Stocker Pinto wagon from SoCal to Indy (racing it in Stock, then driving it back home, and lived a short dream of racing at The Big Go. And in Super Stock the original builder of my winning at the time (mid 80's time period), bracket car (a whit/blue 63 Dodge Polara), Peter Berkuta....and Later none other than GTX John Irving, and am so glad to see he and Jon are still at it and so active after all these years living the dream.

Am rejoining Yac and Nees with a very old slow sled project, last raced actively in the 1990's purchased a car in the family since new dealer purchased Feb. 2 1985 w/27K on the odometer in April of 1993 (last active Feb. 1997 Atsco Nationals Phx, AZ, GF/SA Class Finalist, and really glad the winner is still active albeit a quarter of a century later).

What is the combination? The slowest and most underpowered sled I think to ever attempt the mission, but too late now to back out, what is done is done, and this newbie decided to move forward.

A 1984 Dodge Daytona 2.2L/135 C.I. TBI 99HP (single point Upright Bosch injected...NON-Turbo snail), 2 door hatchback).

How did it become a Stocker? Mom bought the car as a daily driver from Cerritos Dodge in SoCal Feb. 1995 (build date 3rd week Dec. 1984, Uncommon Block EFI, w/A/C...Silver/Silver), she drove it first 27K miles and was forced to retire in a AAA downsize in 1993, and was moving to AZ, I bought it for my wife (for 3K), as a daily, and 3 weeks later she asked if it could be raced in Stk. Elim.?

The next weekend I was at Carlsbad Raceway to find out....(continued).

Edited and reposted from Yac's Newbie post/thread. After a few auto logouts I am going to break up my build thread and journey into smaller posts...high time to quit junking up his thread.

Next up a few pics, and I have a ton along the way.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

The day we picked up the car in 1993 in Long Beach, CA (3K time purchase price from Mom, so much a month, and it didn't take long to earn the sign off on the title), bought for my wife as, a well-cared for, daily driver.

The only actual pic on short notice (I will post it later), shows half the car...Silver on Silver, and Silver/Gray interior, 2 door hatchback, never been in an accident, no bondo, no scratches, zero rust, only 27K miles on the odometer (only driven back and forth to work Feb 1985 to April 93), never even driven on vacation or been out of CA at that point, garaged or curb parked. I was with Mom when she picked it up form the dealer, no major work done except sched. maint., ever.

She (my wife), drove it for all of 3 weeks and made a fateful mistake. She asked me if it would be possible to race a completely factory Stock Slow Street Car that was low mileage, and well cared for, and was only dealer serviced its entire lifetime that I knew the entire maint. history on and I had changed the oil on a few times before).

You see, I always wanted to go class racing in Stock Eliminator (ala Chad Langdon and some of my other friends and competitors), racing back in the day, and a few years earlier I wanted to buy (at a great price in the late 80's), Al Wilson's A/SA Mopar (out of FL), but it was just not doable at the time, was in reach pricewise to obtain the car, but then what...I really could not afford the higher end cost of racing it in reality after all of our bean counting was done, with our 2nd son on the way, and a business to run, a new condo, and many employees to manage, while living in SoCal/South Orange County.

Going fast (A/SA was fast back then)...But, a budget slow GF/SA car when she made that mistake of asking the question, was quite doable.

My answer was quick, and Carlsbad was right down the road, Wednesday to Saturday seemed a long way away.

Carlsbad, Saturday morning, a bone stock 1984 Factory equipped w/ air and CA Emissions, Electric Windows, manual remote mirrors, no sushi slicer (Non-Turbo) 84' Dodge Daytona (Late December build -assembly 3rd week of 84') (15th week 84' casted Uncommon block) 2.2L/135 CI (Single Point injected- Upright Bosch Type), 99HP TBI. And just on unleaded pump gas w/ a lil octane booster added.

That is 4 spark plugs, 1 injector, 1 small single barrel and 1 round butterfly venturi type upright throttle body and blade, a tiny intake manifold and an air intake pathway that stinks to high heaven, with all the twists and turns it has stock to squeeze air through a lousy slider type single OHC cam (1), both in and out of the rear of that transverse mounted head w// no valve job yet. 2 computers...both an under hood fender mounted Power Module controlling spark and the injector, and a passenger side mounted ECU (calculating & controlling everything else in an early crude and simplified Mopar shot at full production attempted EFI, that was recognized so bad by (By the manufacturer mid year 1984...even though they sold a lot of them), as "The Deathly & Boringly Slow Sporty Dodge" that they decided to slap on a sushi slicer small Turbo, and cancelled the entire EFI/TBI slated for the 1985 year model, and never produced another of that particular single point TBI type again), in the lower right kick panel.

(The EPA refused to allow anyone to ever to this day in 2023, release to anyone "except the authorized rebuilders" the actual coding for the 1984 single year units of the TBI ECU, and nobody I have ever found-SO FAR, has ever cracked and hacked, and published the 84 EFI ECU tables (mainly due to very few ever wasted their time racing this a slow sled, since the multi-point injected turbos started limited production that same year...even the 84 Turbos were a single year 1 off, all the others after were different), and though with a special custom cable is avail. which using a serial cable and the under hood mounted diag. cable connector (passenger side fender), and the published hacked reading software, and looking at the 85 Turbo model published code and tables, and simply disregarding the tables that mentioned anything Turbo related, you can easily back engineer and change many of the function table flags (turning some things on/off)....Decades ago I wanted to simply up or turn off any rev limit feature, but today for sure I can tell you after 1 recent pass that mine is set beyond 7,000 RPM on at least 1 of my ECU's of 6 I have, the one in the car now and last in the car in 1997, so it is just fine!

This is not a laptop tuning model without installing a standalone Holley or like system and rewiring the entire car. (That is the plan soon though).

That must be developed slowly so we just remove the engine only wiring harness, install the Holley control over that and all sensors and functions, and leave the key switch to operate everything else from headlights to tail lights and the EFI fuel delivery and safety systems, power windows, etc.

Oh yeah, did I forget to say while I could rebuild and tune Carbs of all kinds up to this point in life in my sleep, that this was my very first EFI car, Oh, I knew absolutely nothing about EFI (what a real learning experience the first few years was!) Carbs and a screwdriver....EFI a multimeter and a laptop. (Ok, and not on my Locked out secret squirrel ECU/PM...Thank You so much you freaking EPA Monsters!)

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Back to the track though (looked it up in 1993), car naturally fit FF/SA, and can go up to 25.00Lbs/per HP in GF/SA, and at that time the factor said 110HP period...more about that later in the story until late May 1995 and Feb. 1996 period.

First pass ever on this car (April or May 1993), in the quarter at Carlsbad in ok air, is -.10 under the GF/SA index of 17.45 and the car is showing about 200 lbs heavy. 4 time trials later it is very (though not deadly), consistent since I am making minor tire pressure changes, air cleaner element in, out, among other things, 1 at a time changes during a not really packed but busy track day).

My lights ranged .496, then .506 to .512 over the next 3 (-.004 today to .012) on a 3 amber 5/10's tree- more than ok, perfect actually, the car runs under from the factory (as long as you drop it 1 class and race it heavy, and the mile an hr is in the 84-85 MPH range. And shift points are at 5,200-5,600 depended on in D or shifted manually. (Through the Cat/Muffler, and A/C belt still on it, A/C turned off).

Beyond that it is beyond the power range.(with zero machining and the stock cam

OK, as a class car it certainly isn't quick, but it has potential, and there must be a lot of changes we can make, just not today.

Let's see how good a bracket car it will be...entered the Street Class Bracket 4 for the day., 36 cars in the bracket and a few hrs. later I have a $400.00 win ck., and a trophy, took the money home and broke the good news / bad news to her, we have a definite slow E.T. bracket car (and potential future Budget Class Car), and we are going shopping for another daily driver for her on Monday!

That was not its only win in slow bracket play, quite a few resulted in 93 and 94, from Carlsbad, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Surprise, AZ, and Chandler, AZ. (Plus 2nd place at a S/SS Shootout at Surprise, AZ put on by Pitre Chrysler Plymouth). I wanted to race National events in 1995, so 1994 was spent earning grade points.

I will start to list the early changes done to the car next to get it from a -.10 under deal to a just ok (but still not really competitive -.55 under deal, and the beginning of the "dreaded and seemingly impossible to resolve issue" that caused me to park it both before and, even after I requested a review of the combo in Dec. 1995, and received a very welcomed 11HP reduction in Feb. 1996. (when you only start w/ 99HP, am forced to race it 11HP higher at 110, and each HP is equal to more than 1%, and each added HP cost you to race 25lbs heavier, it isn't very hard to figure out you are carrying around a lot of unnecessary (like 275lbs too much on a snails back).

Before the reduction request (1995 Englishtown, NJ National Event, had just won Class Wally alone, and just under the index by a couple of tenths btw with issues...the days before they added the Combo-Class races, a tech official visited our pit area and told me I did not have to report to the barn for teardown but my buddy was to report there....I casually asked why I was being penalized 11HP, when I knew for a fact that nobody but this guy, had ever raced this specific car/engine combo before in Stk. Elim. and he looked at me, and said let me go find out if that is correct or not...He came back about a half hour later and said, you know...YOU ARE RIGHT....The only passes or data we have on that specific TBI combo historically are all yours, just less than a year and a half's worth, and every single 1 of those, made in competition come in way under the top performance required to penalize your combo.

And then showed me how to submit a request to review the combo, and at the same time we checked all my numbers and did find out that Chrysler never did actually add (report to NHRA at least), the mid-year change of the intake they factory installed on my car, and in an hr. he was on the phone with the Manufacturer and had a definitive answer that that vin was produced 3rd week of 1984, and that they were out of the 1984 intakes by then and that particular car was produced with the intakes they had originally mid-year prepared for the 1985 model year never produced. So, they used them...Then NHRA added the intake number also at the same time I received my HP Reduction back to the original 99HP.

(Am currently attempting to find out what happened somewhere before 6-2-2003 that caused the current increase of 6HP factoring to 105HP, have had no luck researching the avail. data as of yet...(6HP is 150 lbs). I dieted the car legally to run it at 99HP.

So, I have had to add weight back.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Sry,:D I will figure out the attaching of images here next. The story will be nothing but a bore without the pics.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Do you remember Lion Country Safari right down the road

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Absolutely, though I attempted to rarely get that near exceptional wild animals that far north of the San Diego Zoo. (The Fox Hunts at O.C.I.R. especially the ones featuring 64 Funny Cars were pretty much a Zoo with plenty of wild animals of the human kind in their own right!)

In the 70's on those rare Saturday nights when they were AM/FM promoting all over the Southland for weeks on end before the events, it was standing room only, and just driving a bracket car to the lanes was like a trip to the jungle.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

i wonder if we crossed paths. back then i ran a 67 charger with a 440

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

I remember you David. How have the decades treated you?

https://www.autoimagery.com/gallery-...000jE85nde7IOE

Go to the O.C.I.R. Pic link I posted above. Does that car look familiar to you?

Please disregard the bashed in front grill (the night before that shot was taken at The County, I was in the lanes at Big Willy and Tomika's Outlaw track on Terminal Island and an Altered was right in front of me about 4', and I was in the seat engine off in park (with a car behind me close), when the lane master began pulling our lane, I saw the driver click that altered in reverse and hit the throttle and I hit the brake pedal with both feet, but he drove right up into my grill. The owner (of the altered was right there, he apologized profusely for his driver, paid cash that very night), but it took a couple of years to find another straight grill at Pick-a-Part!

I know that sounds stupid, but very few online pics were ever published that I can find of that car, though I own a bunch of Magazine, N.D. pics/articles, and pics I purchased or took of it personally. Finding that autoimagery site was like gold, but the 1 pic I found of that car that was magic to me back in the day, and yet due to the evident damage, usually embarrasses me to post the link to it.

And that photo was actually taken in 1984 not 1982 which is the database I found it in (the key is the car number shown is 6839 E.T. not my usual 7839 (and that was the 1 year NHRA combined Div. 6 & 7 temporarily into Div. 6). I won the Firestone/Centerline Div. 6 Bracket 3/Heavy championship later that year (October 1984), in that car (a 250 car field at Famoso and my very first Wally. And "The County" our beloved O.C.I.R. in Irvine, CA, was closed forever after the last bracket points race that season. (Dang I miss that track still today!)

Lots of great pics in that database for those that care to peruse it for "back in the day stuff"!

Added:

https://www.autoimagery.com/image?&_...FxKTQ--&GI_ID=

Pete Berkuta's SS/DA Car photo also found in a different O.C.I. R. photo collection, he prepped that White 63 Polara car originally as a bracket car from a junkyard roller build, added a 440/727-B and .430/8-3/4" rear, sold it to Richard Gabaldon who added the lower rear sky blue to cover up after rolling/flaring the rear fenders to fit the wider slicks, and I bought it later from him less than a year later. (The winningest bracket or otherwise car I ever owned... Drove it to and from the track, Fill it up at the Union 76 out on Sand Canyon, (unload the tow bar, slicks and tools in the back seat area and trunk), run it, race it and dial down a hundredth every pass, and just run right on...almost every pass).

I wore out that 440 (a low 11.20 car, but no rollbar or cage so was limited to 5,200 RPM short shifting 12.00 flat@111-113 MPH), over the years (hundreds and hundreds of SoCal passes, I raced all over and 5 days/nights a week some periods), pulled it out just before it blew up one night (it all of a sudden picked up 6/10th's on a semi-final pass for no reason). My uncle wanted to trade me a fully re-built and ready to install 13.5-1 C.R. 383 that came in his Road Runner Factory, as he wanted a 440 6 Pack Edition, so we met with the other finalist, agreed to split the final payout, he got the trophy as a bonus, then we headed to his house in San Diego and pulled out my worn out but still running bullet 9by that time I was burning Grade 60 Valvoline oil, the rings were good, but all the bearings were razor blades)...Dropped in that 383 the next day, fired it up and I drove it home to Anaheim Hills. (A few months later he had his 440 Six Pack car running and was a happy man!) And I did not miss even 1 race day/weekend.

It was sure down on torque, but it squirted off the line, instead of pulling the wheels up, ran the same ET 12.00 flat at 121MPH (a 9 MPH increase just made the top of the bracket car even more deadly), and was just as consistent as it ever was with the 440 in it. (Lotsa fun for many years, and more success than any 1 person ever deserved).

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

north or south of lions?

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Oh, I forgot...The reason I posted Pete's car. That was the car/driver I faced in the 1984 Div. Finals, final round (His car 426 Wedge motor, 4.88 gears dialed 12 Flat@ 113MPH, my 383, 4.56 gears dialed 12 Flat @ 121MPH at Famoso, as you can see by pic differences it had that wheels up SS/DA type air under the tires and left a lot harder, but when he came back to earth about the Tree I was on his rear quarter with my front tire, and I knew what the finish line was going to look like, no way he could hang with that mile an hour difference. It took to half track to nudge out in front, but wop, wop and an inch apart I took the stripe. (That was 1 of the absolute best heads-up races, I ever participated in). Most others were fast closing rates whether I was chasing, or being chased.

Sry all, a different car, a different class, a different era. Still fun times.

Thank's for the memories.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Actually West of (229th and Dolores Street), just over the border in Carson, CA not far from Carson High School (and a block from where I went to Delores elementary school). We were so close, we could hear the cars run at home, so we were there a lot when I was small. And I did not need to beg much to get my step-dad (or my High School Hot Rodding Uncle w/ a Black/Black 56 Chevy), to go as they were fans too!

lol, I was a kid and didn't drive back then, I just looked it up (we would go south to 223rd, east on 223rd and across to the track). Closed in 1972, by then i lived in Long Beach on the East side, and the place to go was O.C.I.R. in the 64 Funny Car Saturday Night Heyday, where pre-race they lined em' up on the track diagonally all the way down both guard rails.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Carson and hawthorne and worked at service center on hawthorne

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Just testing my resized pics so I can continue.

Through the years...

Attachment 68129 1993 Day of Purchase, no...we bought the whole car, but the only pic I could find from the beginning.

Attachment 68130 Spring 1995 GatorNats, FL

Attachment 68131 This last May 20th, 2023 (Shakedown ring seating Pass 2-1/8th Mile Kingman, AZ Legal Street Drags on Rt. 66 on the Slicks) (An annual full track setup right on Andy Devine 3 miles from home, and a timely finish of a 15 month project. Short Block was in the machine shop a full yr. and 3 weeks.

Attachment 68132 (Now ready to run first quarter mile passes this go around, as soon as NHRA hopefully re-assigns the same numbers...fingers crossed, paperwork and fees are in now). Yeah the G's went away yesterday, now EF/S is on it. Looking to first quarter mile T-N-T Vegas on the 8th of Sept. (Sportsman Brackets same weekend? Maybe:D)

I think I have the aspect ratio on resized pics correct if they post so I can get back to the build and changes over time. We shall see.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Yeah. (Every part ever removed except the recently replaced pistons I have on the shelf or floor in my garage).

Ok back to 1993, first thing to go The A/C Compressor hoses/dryer off, Save the A/C and Alt. mount (combo weight box/torque strap is mounted in the A/C bracket under hood and in front of R.F. spindle). Box is steel and weighs 14 lbs empty holds 30 plus lbs lead.

Deleted the Cast Iron Exhaust Manifold, CA, EGR smog stuff and a certain Item 3 letter item I will not mention, Replaced with a Chrysler Ramcharger style Hooker 2.2L Long primary tube Header, added O2 Bung and Bosch 1 wire O2 Sensor back.

Cracked open in those days the Direct Connection Catalog and they still had then lotsa go faster a little at a time dealer orderable pcs....For the A-413 Transaxle (lowest set of side case gears avail. at the time, a great trans builder friend of mine in Torrance, CA did miracles reworking the 1st and 2nd gearsets to lower the final gear ratio (it takes time to figure out what is available, and what is best to use with each other (and the complete 3 book Service Manual Set that the Dealers used back then is the best place to start, I did not have a set then, but do now), but not enough to tear up the unequal half shafts.(I have damaged a couple of smaller front axles or boots over time, but recently learned to rebuild/reboot my own).

I bought the D.C. Forward pattern valve body shift kit and also did the modifications myself with a little help to improve it greatly. Another Racer by the name of Lee sold me a barely used set of 20" tall X 6" W X 14" Rim sized M.T. E.T Slicks with plenty of rubber still on them (it is not the rubber, I rarely even drive through the water at all, it is all about the gearing lower of the final gear ratio the slow sled needs.

(Someone back then I think, either Bill O'Connor or Lee brought me a full set of damaged equal length half shafts w/ a broken Carrier Bearing from a turbo edition, still in a box on the lower shelf, never repaired it yet, but if I ever get it to go really fast, might be worth doing).

Also think If I remember correctly in Phoenix in 95, that Bill O'Connor gave me a pretty much stock slider cam in great shape and a little bit more lift than the 1 I had and I tried it once in Houston during a rainout, I dialed it in and tested it a few passes on a T-N-T day playing both adv. and ret., and switched back the morning the National event resumed.

I also picked up from D.C.all the necessary tools to get the cam correct, solid adj. lifter, an adj. TDC finder that screws into the #1 spark plug hole, Made my own degree wheel pointer, 8 Moroso lightweight checking springs, Degree wheel and adapter and addl. Crank Bolt, the correct tool to adjust the timing belt that is counterweighted, and of course carry with me all the measuring instruments to use head on or head off the block.

Next up was to remove the cold air box completely, just removing the element does not improve it much on the Single Point TBI edition.

Those minor items netted me about 4/10ths to about .500 under the 17.45 Index.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

The $400.00 bucks won at the 1st bracket race at Carlsbad was just about enough a month or 2 after we bought it to get the car a really cheap (Earl Scheib, believe it...), paint job in blue. They screwed up everything, painted it, pulled it out into the shop, and some fool stripped another car next to it, we showed up to pick it up and little pcs and balls of butcher paper were stuck to the whole car...everywhere!

Needless to say they sanded it all down again and repainted it. They ended up not charging us for the paint job.

1994 The economy sucked in CA, then the Northridge Earthquake hit us from 1 direction early morning, and the same day from the opposite direction in Twenty Nine Palms another quake hit (we decided within a couple of weeks to move to N.W., AZ), so I moved the race car, other vehicles, family and household to AZ...I still had a few employees we had not laid off yet in our struggling at the time Landscape Construction business, but at least 6 months worth of contracts and jobs to finish up, so I travelled back and forth and started racing the car E.T. brackets and Div. events in Stk. to gain grade points in 94 for 95 Nat. Event entries.

I bracket raced the car and started to do well with it at Vegas (long before the 4 wide existed), Speedworld, Chandler, Bakersfield, and a few other places. Even claimed a Runner Up in a S/SS Combo Shootout Race at Surprise put on by Petre C.P..

First Div. Event was at Las Vegas, NV in 94, got to the track with pump gas in it, drained, added a couple gals of VP C12, and promptly failed a pre-race fuel ck. nice tech guy called on the radio to the tower, and he asked for a maint. guy, who he requested a single gallon of red offroad diesel from 1 of the temporary lights way out at the far end of the track, and when he brought it by, he said pay the man...I did. He taught me what I needed to know and do...Wash the oxygenators' out of my fuel system using diesel.

Including this process (because nobody wants to do it if they do not have to), it is a pain, but I got good at it over the next year or 2.

Pumped out the race gas (saved it in same container I had recently drained my pump gas in), made sure not to start the car so no diesel makes it through the injector, just circulates tank, filter(s), up to throttle body and back through return line, and also bounce the rear of the car to splash that 1 gallon all over the inside of the tank, drain diesel and save it in a different container. Add 1-2 gals race gas, wash system to remove the diesel. Save that too. Then fill tank with desired (no more than 2 gals expensive race gas, retest at fuel ck. (yeahhhhh I passed, and I learned what to do, never failed another fuel ck again).

I drove the car on cheap unleaded pump gas from event to event, always arrived early & ready, and took after a few times doing it about a half hour to complete the process before I had the pre-race fuel ck. done...And I sold a lot of unused pre-tested fresh race gas to a lot of friends over the next 2 yrs., at the end of every event.

While I did it driving to events coast to coast and back, it is a pain, so I would not suggest anyone else attempt it unless they have to, and my new rebuilt engine today, no way is Diesel getting anywhere near those combustion chambers again. A 5 gal cell is now installed, it is not a drag and drive car anymore.

Next change I made was calling TCI and having a great torque converter made (Winter of 1994). That is still in the car now in 2023.

At this point in time (i had collected enough grade points to enter Nat. Events), it is just about time for The 1995 WinterNats by the time I got that converter in the car. My first National event will be a test event for that lone chg. pc, but it feels good and while not a whole world of difference it is looser, it flashes and stalls a bunch higher than the prior stock 1.

First 3 Q passes are much improved. And I have always loved Pomona! (My Grandfather went with me and we towed it there). By this time, I had completed all my contracts, and finished up business in CA, sold off our company, filed our last tax return, put our State Contractors Lic. back in the hands of the CA Contractors board, waved goodby and moved the balance of business equipment to N.W., AZ...My wife was happy, life was happy, and she said go racing for a while if you want, you had a rough year in 94! 1995 was going to be spent driving the budget stocker to Nat. and Div. Events and Bracket Racing in between full time travelling, me, the car, and about 1,500 lbs of tools, supplies, clothes, luggage, etc. in the budget drag and drive Class Car.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Ok, first National Event Ever Class Racing ...At least for me, first time towing this car too. And I made a big mistake as I often washed the car at a hand spray wash near the track (incl. carefully in the engine bay), but then would drive it immediately always. We did the same except on the trailer, and that mistake will show up later (at just the wrong time!).

Feb 2nd., 1995 Pomona, CA (air is crisp, cool out, but dry, snow on the San Gabriel Mnts., air is good, but no mine shaft conditions, too many water grains in the air. And 11:34 A.M., track is not yet right for Q-1, and I have a fresh converter installed and no tests but a dry hop or 4 in front of the house at home on a poor chip sealed road.

I will take it easy and feel out the staging, stall, flash and leave and adjust for Q-2...Light ok, needs adjusting down earlier though or a higher stall on the leave or both...leave shift 1-2 at 5700 and the car is in Drive. And it goes through and It shifted itself 2-3 at too early. (my log book shows an X). Q-1 17.074 -376 under on 17.45 GF/SA index.

Feb 3 Q-2 8:00 AM Adjustment time. (Both Tree and Stall Speed get after that light and manually shift the car and find out what it will really run).
Ok, that is a lot better, but red by a bunch -.069 Red (have not eaten yet today, and I need some food & less coffee...because Q-3 is a hot lap in like 17 mins), but the car is right it just ran a personal best 16.736 -.714 Under, and the best MPH so far. (It is not a Rocket by any means yet, but it was worth the money for the converter), and Q-3 is coming right up. And in middle of the pack, best Q position at that point in time for me so far, I am happy.

I have nothing to do but eat, car is maint. free budget car I can hot lap all day, and in less than an hr. our race day is over, until tomorrow at 8:00 AM.

I eat and ready at 8:17 AM Q-3 (light is nothing to write home about...I'll adjust that tomorrow, as I mainly wanted to repeat the pass or see if I can)...I stalled 100 RPM higher though 16.730 -.720 Under....Now we are getting somewhere at least with the car, if it will repeat like that I can work on me. Still not a rocket, but a reliable mid packer, but still know I am on the bottom half and will get a tough draw tomorrow.

We prepare the car up on jackstands, so I can warm up the car in the morning and at least warm up the transaxle, because there is flat no driving around the pits Sunday AM before first round and rain and fog are both in the forecast overnight and AM hrs. (our 1st Rnd call is for 8:00 AM), ladders are not ready yet when we leave to get lunch hit the motel, swim a bit and rest up).

Feb. 4, 1995- Get to the track, wipe car down as it rained earlier, still foggy out, quite cool and humid. Start warming up the car after checking the R-1 Ladder...Yup tough company I have Gary Emmons 1st round.

Car is up on stands front tires spinning in low gear we have about a half hour before the call, and just as the car reaches decent temperature, it just out of the blue shuts off.....and my grandfather is pointing under the car (and I am dumbfounded), why did the car lose fire?

I look up and he is standing there shaking his head and holding a 1 pc timing belt and it is in a line not a circle! Awwwww, crap. I am dejected, and he asked do you have another 1? I am worried about bent valves, he is asking if I have another Timing belt...I do, but....He says get it and I am thrashing already, looking for it and tools to do the work.

I changed to a new belt about a yr. ago, when I purchased the adjustable Cam Sprocket and offset keys, but did not do that in a hurry (I did save the old belt just in case though...that is the 1 I found in my spares box.

I do not have a lot of time, and am going to be really rushed to unbolt the right mount jack up the engine, slide belt over the mount, realign the Cam sprocket, Crank sprocket, the Intermediate sprocket all in the right points get that belt on (not off a single 12 degree tooth), no time to break out the books, just the tools, and pray....as he tells me no worries, it is a non-interference engine, the valves cannot touch those flat top pistons, so let's get this belt on now. (It hit me, while I had never had the head off the engine at this point, I had read everything I could about a 2.2L that I could get my hands on)...Books in mid 90's, no real internet yet folks, no youtube. And he was right, it can happen at full throttle and you only lose fire in the holes.

I relax and we thrash, we get the belt on, I think it is right, no time to warm it up again ,it fires up and sounds ok I am late but get there just in time, dialed a 16.72...and I am late on the tree, and Jerry flat drills me (I never had a chance), I can probably find the time slip somewhere, but my log book in the whole column just says the time, the dial in, and in bold letters -BROKE TIMING BELT AFTER PAIRING 1ST ROUND- and in small print at the bottom. G. Emmons 1st. rnd. loss I am (LATE). -First Rnd. Duck-

Crap happens, it was a long 6 hr tow home, looking at that belt later, it looked like it sat in a pool of water overnight right at the break point, and then I remembered that car wash, and the timing belt cover snout pools water there evidentially unless you fire it up and kick the water out and heat the block properly to dry everything out, so soap, water, and the degreasing chemicals weakened the belt.

Hey PHX Nats is in 2 weeks, then I am headed out for months of the best road trip of Nats, Div's., and Bracket racing ever, so head home nd get the car packed and prepped to head South and East, racing along the way!

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Once home, when we put the belt on that morning at the track in a thrash, it was a tooth off, retarded a full 12 degrees (which is not hard to do, if you do not have everything marked just right ahead of time, and recent marks that are not faded, and do not hold your head in just the right spot and angle when aligning the crank and intermediate sprocket(s) marks (you get (0_) instead of (o-) and that is exactly 1 tooth as there used to be a lot more in the way than there is today. (On the bright side though, my normal install on that particular cam is 3 degrees adv. using the D.C. adj. cam sprocket and a 3 degree offset key, so...In the end it was really worse than a tooth off and it kills the bottom end on this car, but helps the top. So that helped make that light even worse than it really was.

But, I knew to check it immediately once we arrived home. That is not the worst part, there is about a dollar sized spot of tranny fluid on the steel deck of the trailer right below the inspection plate on the transaxle bellhousing, but I have time to pull that converter out and find out what's up (12 days to fix things and Chandler is only 3.5 hrs Southeast). I hope it is just the Converter to pump seal..T.C.I is in Jacksonville, FL and I need to drive this car there via PHX- Nat., Ennis, TX,- Div. Houston, TX-Div. then Gainsville, FL-Nat., and I have family in JAX I will be visiting. Then Baton Rouge, LA-Div......Springtime Rains are in store though in a big way.

Car is fast enough for now, and so far (just a couple of passes consistent), an after a thrash, a pass like that sucks, but I can throw that out...this time. It is not much of a build thread yet, but things get progressively worse before they get better.

Rain, Bugs, and a long road trip, some improves along the way...later ok.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Ok in hindsight I went and looked up that time slip, It was a bad light, but the ET was not as bad as the light made me feel, but anytime you line up against someone from the Emmons Clan from Pasadena, TX, expect to get a workout. I know now, what I did not know then (I had yet to meet them yet other than through a glass window in the other lane my first National Event competing, and I was paying more attention to myself and my car, than I was who was in the other lane), as I had raced up till then all over SoCal, NorCal, the Western Div. 7, a couple of deep southern 1/8th mile tracks (that I could not today even find on a map if I tried), when travelling to and from CA to to FL for 3 Winter Bracket Series in the mid 80's...83, 84, and 85...then when I went again not racing, but as a Contingency sponsor and distributor of Nathan's Wax in 88 I think, via Missouri, and always just drove straight through that 24 hr loooong drive across the Great State of Texas and never had raced in Div. 4...only had a season under my belt in Stk. Elim thus far.

But I did recognize those Black and Yellow Pyroil/Valvoline Cars (there was a bunch of em, so they were very hard to miss), and Valvoline/Pyroil was also the fluid Mfg/Dist. Sponsor that year (Every National Event you were entered in, you went to the Mfg. Midway and chose your products, A case of oil, another trans fluid, and other products like brake fluid, injector cleaner, etc., I never changed my oil so much in my whole life as that year.

I had nothing but time between events but to drive (find a track with a bracket event), and attempt to pick up some cash along the way in what I was a lot better at than class racing yet, so it was find a track racing along the way, change oil and compete until you reached the next Div. or Nat. event on my schedule or sit in a motel/hotel room and be bored. the car was ok, as was I at slow roll bracket racing...But, I learned I really don't like 1/8 mile racing in a snail. The Deep South was full of those then.

Back at home I pulled out the Transaxle for the second time in a week, 3rd time ever, and all 3 times on the ground car up on jackstands and not on a lift. Tody would rather pull the engine out completely with it attached then just the transaxle alone, but what did I know, I was a lot younger and stupid (I pulled the converter out), checked the converter to pump seal, no issue there, but found a tiny pinhole leak in the weld around the balloon weld, it was leaking, wasn't a bad leak, but it left a quarter inch wide band of fluid around the center of the inside of the bell housing that was sealed up on the bottom by an inspection plate w/ a single bolt, and running it would put out a drop a minute or two. (This was a very tiny leak, but a leak all the same. And I'm leaving on nearly a 3,000 mile trip before I will arrive in Jacksonville, FL.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

So, I called T.C.I. (and he said no way is there a pinhole in that converter), and I was running out of time (it is brand new under warranty, not going to have anyone else rework it...weld it, the converter works well, I had just run the 2 fastest passes back to back ever in the car in Q2/Q3, I need TCI to fix it only), I sealed the pinhole with epoxy (they can wire brush that off later), got a small loaf pan (like a tiny banana nut bread loaf), drilled a hole in it where the inspection plate bolt is located, stuck a sham wow shammy folded over in the bottom of that pan inside to soak up anything if it were to leak, and bolted on protection. And hit the road after loading up, headed for Chandler and Nat. Event #2.

Arrived and prepped the car and headed to tech. then a pre-race fuel ck after doing my thing, and sure enough they saw it in tech and asked (I told them what was up, and he said can you pull it off for me?). Sure...It took me a min and a 10mm wrench. He looked in the pan, and there was only a dime sized drop on the shammy material, asked how far I drove it and I said 3.5 hrs., and he handed it back and said put it back on, we would rather you not even leak a drop, and it appears to not be performance enhancing. Nobody ever even looked at that pan again at a National or Divisional event until after the Gainsville event...I think the word travelled to the east coast before I got there amongst Tech Inspectors.

But, after Gainsville, later when I got to Commerce, GA, the same Tech inspector from PHX was there, and he looked up underneath, laughed and said, ahhhh you got it fixed (that pan was gone). There is more to that story later.

I will not bore you with all the PHX. race details, let it suffice to say I received an arse whoopin from Jerry Emmons Round #1 (Emmons Brother 2 so far through 2 events 1st round(s), and Dad Harver ll ,and 1994's National Champ Harvey lll is wearing the #1 on his car is still out there, and guess where I am headed next? Div. 4 Ennis, TX and their home turf for The 1st Div. race of the trip, then Houston, TX for a Nat. Event. (Phx did require a coil replacement after Q-2, and I picked up some parts to add a New Autometer Fuel Pressure Gauge, a fuel petcock for easy sampling and Earls fittings and braided lines. Additions to be done along the way during long waits). The weather was great in PHX, hotel issues though I would not bore anyone with, and while My stuff was in my pit, under a tarp and blanket at Wild Horse (called Firebird Raceway in those days), in the middle of the night, right next to a friend's motorhome bedroom window, someone local (not necessarily a racer, as it had happened there a year before also), went through my stuff...only a couple of minor items missing, I had taken all really valuable stuff with me to the motel (including the car).

But, that will set a stage for the next installment.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

I leave PHX (after attempting to sell 5 gals of fresh VP C-12 in 1 of my fuel jugs, no takers @ $7.50 a gal it is going with me), heading south and east, next race Ennis, Tx, and about 20 miles from the Ft. Worth Outerplex on I think it was I-20 one of Texas DPS's finest is sitting in the center in the grass, I look down, I'm cool right on the speed limit, but he whips out anyway and pretty much just wants to ck. the vehicle for any illegal substances or contraband.

Parking at the track is tonight, still a ways to go, and just before sunset now, He would like me to unload everything on the side of the road, I have zero worries (ok, except the 5 gals of race gas in that fuel jug, but he already looked at that, smelled it and capped it back up satisfied it was only gasoline in a red jug), and he just wants his buddy's dog to do a walk around.

As I am unloading all of a sudden this feeling comes over me...I AM OK...but, someone went through much of my stuff 2 nights ago, crap...What if?

The dog shows up, sniffs around, and does not alert to anything of course, they left and let me load it aall back up. Guess who was working the event the next few days? Yup, same 2 Texas DPS Officer, we talked and I related what happened to me in PHX, and my momentary thoughts the night before, and they both laughed and simply said, yeah...That could have been bad.

He said you were cool and I knew it the minute you said ok and started unloading while I watched you. It's just our job, and we knew where you were heading.

Ennis (4 days 2/23-2/26), incl. a test and tune day before was great, until it rained us out just before 1st round, delayed to 3/11-3/12 (at first, then again after Houston, the Ennis Div. 4-1 was resched. for June something, and I will never make it back, they eventually refunded my entry for the race without issue and only charged me for the Test day!. (Heeeey I escaped a race without being slaughtered by an Emmons boy!) LMAO:D

Of course I didn't go any rounds, but had a total of 10 passes at the Texas Motorplex, the car is ok, but nowhere near a fast in TX as it was in CA, but the lights were better, just not in competition. (At least I truly met the Emmons Clan Of Texas, all of them), and they made me feel right at home, a great group of people, it was fun and relaxed until the skies opened up and poured buckets like you would not believe.

I leave Dallas heading for Houston and can barely see the road ahead as I am heading south on the Interstate, not 20 or so miles from the track, and Blue lights flashing in the rear view mirror. Crap what now, I was only doing like 35 mph, as was everyone else, and a different DPS officer again comes to my window in his smokey hat, and full on rain slicker, it is flat pouring out, just opening my window a crack and I am getting soaked inside the car, and he asks me If I would mind unloading everything on the side of the road in a deluge!

My eyes are huge, and I say are you serious? Then he smiles and says "as a heart attack"..."which is what you almost just had", then I hear this roar of laughter and sure enough the same 2 officer's from the track were standing at the rear of the car, laughing like crazy, while he explains they put him up to it and I could merrily go on my way now.

3/2-3/6/95 First Q- pass at Houston was a 16.90 -.550 Under with a .004 light (.504) in those days, but you know, things change...And, some things don't, as I was qualified #23 after Q-1, the highest so far to date, and in came the rain and washed all the fun out. The race will be entirely re-run (because the grass spectator parking lot was a mud pit and it will take 2 days just to pull all the cars and trucks out), We will re-run the entire event next week 3/9-3/12/95! (There goes that ok #23 Q Spot!) I cannot win for losing. 2 event dates in a row though and I have not be whacked by another Emmons! (in fact...NHRA transferred my rained out Ennis entry to the upcoming Baton Rouge Div., and The Emmons clan (Family), invited me to stay near them and set me up at the Pasadena Motor Inn near them (arranged a decent rate for me through local friends & invited me to the house for a few BBQ's and I had a great time visiting w/ new friends!

When I wasn't having a great time over the next 10 days I was playing with and testing 3 different cams, and actually picked up a crew chief for the Re-Sched. Houston race from Liberty Chrysler Plymouth who had parts and sponsor help. (Dad) Harvey, Jr. introduced us.

That 10 days was really a blurr, but I have notes, and had a great time while I was luckily marooned amongst new friends in South Texas! (The boys house at that time had as many Wally's, other Trophies and awards as Don Garlits Musuem in Ocala, FL!:D

I really appreciated my time with them, their hospitality was amazing, and cannot wait to see the men (cannot call them boys any more), again in the near future and was really sry and sad to hear they lost their Dad not too long ago.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

3/9-3/12, 1995 Houston, TX Nat'l Event was re-run, I actually won a round, and then the next round (as the fuelers were warming up, both dragsters and Funny Cars, I get my green and this huge red tinged cloud of unburned Nitro fumes wafts across the track, and I drive right into it, and I am now waaaay out on the other guy (not an Emmons though), I stand on the brakes, no smoke or sliding and just go through ahead and take the stripe and break out 13 hundredths. (warm up nitro clouds are no fun in a slow car..."I love the smell of Nitromethane, but My eyes were watering in the car with the windows rolled up and the vents closed, and for sure my lil' throttle body was sucking in all it could). I actually felt it pick up a bunch and the tach shot up faster than usual, and I could feel the break out coming by half track but there was not a thing I could do until late in the run, as he was a fast car. I just carried him by just too much. He was an A or a B car, I think Blue with White Stripes an Early 70's GT500 Mustang? My mph at 660' was up over +10 from all prior runs and I was down by 6 MPH at the stripe attempting to whoa up and not give it up. The light on either side wasn't anything to write home about, but were close together .036/.037 in his favor. What a crazy race, the car is still running ok, but the cam that is in it now is coming out, because it is not as good as another for consistency (even without Nitro fumes hanging heavy in the air).

Hey, I can laugh about the season from heck as this is 2.5 decades later, it has been fun and a nightmare all at once (still living the dream). Lol.

Next up Baton Rouge, LA -Div. 4 At least the entry is already paid as Div. 4 Director transferred Ennis entry to B.R., LA (where Harvey, Jr. says Imma gonna have some Louzianna Gumbo, and we gonna suck the heads off some crawwwwdads next! And he was surprised I did.

(So far completed 3 Nat's-1 rnd win/0 Div., and I squeezed in 1 Bracket race night in N.M. runner up, 2 in TX so far quarters and semis, and it isn't paying the bills.

Last thing though for Houston... Bob Frey with NHRA Today approached me early in Houston and said to me..."Is it true you are driving your Budget Stocker on Tour?" I said yes Bob, and he asked if we could do a 20 minute segment or something, I said sure, and during some downtime, we drove off property together and down a road by a bunch of trees and they had me drive up and down the road like I was travelling back and forth between tracks for B roll footage, then they sped it up in the clip and the accompanied interview happened about the experience so far, and it was fun, the final cut was like half the entire NHRA Today Episode and my wife taped it for me at home, it was an added bit of a surprise.

Glad I am having fun, because things with the car are going to go down hill only on the racetrack though, and pretty much never gets better. That bug of (what I just found out in 2022, and confirmed in May 2023 - a full throttle instant on off, on off, vacuum leak), that all the time in 1995 seemed like it was an ECU Rev Limit feature has always been there after the finish line since a bracket race long ago in Vegas, is about to start showing up at about 5,200 RPM in each gear, or actually anytime I go pedal to the metal (full throttle), for 2 seconds or more. and it is going to drive me crazy and cost a lot of money and zero good racing results.

It also affects the bracket racing, but not as much as the class racing. And it gets progressively worse over time.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

I messed up, sry...Gainsville is next up, after a trip to Jacksonville to visit relatives, then back to Baton Rouge, LA.

On the way to Florida I start having road trip issues, do the key flop dance and read ECU Codes...My MAP Sensor is no good, find a dealership, they hook up their Diag tool and the MAP needs replacing along with the ECU. I keep my ECU core though. Back on the road, (about 3 days in Gainsville with family I had not seen in years (My uncle has a beautiful Red Cuda he has had since I was a kid, and he loves Drag Racing, so he will meet me in Gainsville for a few days later), I did not have the time to pull the converter and get it fixed in JAX at TCI, back on the road & ck into the HoJo in Gainsville Motor Hotel. I prep at the track, and another Stock Racer Bernie Cunningham approaches me and says are you really staying in a hotel/motel, yup...He says I have a motorhome, my generator, trailer and racecar, and have the empty bed over the cab, rent from me, we will split/ share the weekly grocery bills and generator gas /water costs, and food cooking together, and we will just stay at the track together and travel together if you want and we work out the details. I explain sometimes I will go off alone to other events on my schedule that are not together with his (some Div. events I was attending elsewhere and some E.T. brackets, but the Nat. Events it works out). I would just meet up with him at the next venue.

The car is running tops now on the road, lets see on the track. Gainsville, FL, my miss is now at 5,000 RPM in each gear when full throttle it leaves hard, accelerates perfectly and about 5,000 it just pops and nose dives like hitting a rev limiter, and picks back up and runs fine to top of each gear, shift and does it again...every pass! Lights are ok, but the E.T. suffers and cannot even dial it well this way. Glad no heads up races.

I try everything, putting all 3 of my avail. ECU's in 1 at a time...and it does the very same thing (only at differing RPM's consistently, 5,000 on ECU 1, 5,200 on ECU 2, and 5,300 on ECU 3.....Not consistent between ECU's though, so I think since all of them are rebuilds (as they do not make new ones as the 1984 TBI is a 1 yr only model specific ECU they just keep rebuilding and recoding and selling them...today I have a collection of 7 of them, and they all test good)...Am chasing a bug and chasing my tail, and burning dollars but, far from home, entry's are pre-paid, I am not giving up pressing forward, chasing under hood vacuum lines and wiring is not solving the issue, reading my multiple Hanes and Chilton manuals I have with me, but I do not have a full dealer Repair Manual set, and back then the dealer's only had those (I have a full set now! in 2023).

At Gainsville in the lanes at the Gators awaiting Q-3, a local fan approaches me and we get to talking about my slow sled, and he is a very nice friendly guy, and he says, while you are in town, if you need to do anything to your car, I have a dyno tuning, and repair shop about 3 miles from here downtown (and it is the slow time of year), and you are welcome to come work on your car in my shop if you have needs at all, I have 3 lifts, a roller dyno and maybe we can work out that issue you are having...yeah you could not help but notice.

And I told him I really needed to pull my converter out and send it to TCI at JAX then reinstall it, and in the meantime maybe we could together attempt to chase down this other issue that is costing me a ton of losses , but mainly all my passes are now junk except a lot of great tree practice (1 mediocre .026 light, and all the rest at Gainsville were -.004 to .006...and I can deal with all of those, but the E.T's were crazy slow just barely under the index, and 1 pass just over it.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

I accepted the offer he was so kind to give, and I told Bernie I was going to send my converter to JAX, see if could trace this issue down at the Dyno shop here in town, then head to Baton Rouge and catch up with him in Atlanta (South of), as he was going to park the motor home in a sponsor friends driveway for a while before we need to go to Commerce, GA Nat. event. (I was still having fun, and getting to know EFI, even if it was the bad side of EFI, I was gaining a lot of knowledge and experience with the car, some bad, a lot good, and I was not doing it alone as a lot of good people were attempting to help diagnose it also. Later even a Chrysler Engineer who helped design and test, then race these G Body, K car derived nightmares attempted to help, he was as dumbfounded as everyone else, to the point of actually checking my timing and then he put it up on the actual rev limiter for me to the point I thought he was going to blow that tiny 2.2 to smithereens. (that was well after I was back home in AZ months later, and down in Surprise, AZ at Speedworld)
He by hand just layed that throttle body wide open and held it there until it screamed and went bab,bab,bab,bap.

I slowly stepped away from the engine bay, and have no idea what RPM it actually reached to hit the true rev limit feature (but it did, and he said it awww it won't blow up, and smiled with a sly grin, then said it is not the ECU doing that , but dang if I know what it is, said good luck and walked away, and it was a totally different sound than the eventually found vacuum leak.


Note**I know what it was now in 2023, so very hard not to call it what it was...

A huge full throttle instantaneous large vacuum leak, that causes an instant backfire or instant loss of power...my guess is it was sucking so much vacuum so fast, that it simply was blowing the plug spark out for 1 or 2 holes), all because 2 seconds into full throttle it (the ECU, was opening a stinking fuel tank vapor solenoid, and there was a cracked line back above the gas tank attached to the rollover vent line. And the cracks in the rubber line were getting worse over time.

I was absolutely going nuts and nothing I (we), did fixed the issue. We went to his Dyno Shop, I pulled the Transaxle again, boxed up the converter overnighted it to JAX, and TCI reworked it, called me to apologize (said yes, it had a pinhole in the weld...NO CHARGE), and sent it back right away overnight, 1 day it was back all fixed, I reinstalled it, worked on electrical, vacuum lines, under dash, in engine bay, just replaced anything I could think of or see, then once the transaxle was back in we strapped it to his dyno (and that was a scary thing to do, as the FWD car I was facing a concrete block wall about 3' from the front bumper and doing full pulls...4 was enough for me, it just does not feel right!

The issue was still there but a lot milder, like manageable milder, that is probably looking back because I was going down on the pedal lighter and slower than on a dragstrip and it wasn't actually going wide open the same, so the ECU did not trigger the same. at this point I was sure it was a rev limit feature in the ECU or ignition related, Coil, Distro, or Power Module, Wires, something else.

Now off to Baton Rouge to meet back up with The Emmons folks. div 4 race 2, but 1 I was withdrawn from. Car driving just great on the highway, even better than usual, and no more bread pan, & no leaks. getting even better mileage too. (Computer cars are nuts...until you find out it is a simple mechanical failure because it is fully hidden unless you drip the tank). And here we are 28 years later, and all the same electronics are still on that car and everything is fine today.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

If you have never been to the NHRA Sanctioned Dragstrip in Baton Rouge, LA...It is a sea level track wayyyy back in da swamps on a bayou. Spanish Moss hanging from all the trees, and you better pick up on the Cajun dialect really fast or ugonmissout oueverthin.

It is a great place, with some great people, not bad hook, faster paced than you would think it would be, some great food and friends to meet, and if you would even think about attempting to climb and possibly sit on those really rusted up (at least back in 1995), at one time way in the past stands you may have called 'bleachers" or seats, check you last tetanus shot date first!

At least their "grand"-stand date was long past expired.

A fun place, my lights again wer ok to good, but the same stupid issue, just missed running the number. (it was very humid and it was flat slow there, 1/8 mile and Q times).

Off To south of Atlanta to meet up w/ Bernie, and by the time I arrived he said he had been researching something for me, and we are headed to a local GA Salvage Yard to see a certain 1983 Dodge Omni (Carbed Edition), and excise some parts from it. The Mopar Electronic Spark Control Box and the harness to coil box, and back to the Hall Effect Distro. $35.00 Bucks and a few minutes later we are back and installing it on my car, and checking voltages at all the TPS, MAP, Coolant Temp Sensors, everything we can to see if there is anything that did not show up on the Chry. Dealer's diag. run.

We chisel / numeral marked via a degree wheel installed on the crank, and and then through the bellhousing timing window the converter starting at TCI's 0 mark and knowing we were at TDC all 360 degrees around that new converter, so we can see initial and Total easily with a timing light. Once around 10's wide chisel, once around 5's narrower chisel, then, all the way around in between dots, then added the numerals with steel stamps at each ten mark, Zero is Painted white.

That must be also aligned for the timing belt too, and not easy as it is on opposite side of the car, 2 person operation.

the Spark box took control of Spark and Timing functions away from the Power Module but not the ECU, and it actually runs better on the box/module, it does not jump around like when the power module controls spark., pretty much reducing the PM to operate the injector and only other minor functions, small pkg, easy 3 bolt spare replace in 3 mins...Or, i can just plug back in the stock system and switch over the + and - coil leads. And it is back on the PM in control of spark and timing. It has been on the car ever since.

All sensors ck'd out, but we replace and calibrated a new TPS anyway, a new Coolant Temp Sensor, he dug out of his electronic box a couple of dial type potentiometers, wired 1 up, gave me a spare, and we had a dial Base parameter Rich/Lean dial that using temp voltage ranges fools the MAP into sending constant elevation type reading.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Atlanta I was a 2nd round duck, but not as bad though the issue still existed, as it still changed little (though I went back to Atlanta the following Wednesday for a Bracket Race and instead of just adjusting it once (Rich or Lean depending on Corrected Altitude), and leaving it for days unless there were huge swings...I started out Lean on the dial in daylight hours, and as rounds progressed and the air got cooler and better I richened it a notch or number before every round...I won both the street and the combined bracket(s) that night!)


We stayed near Atlanta again same place and I went up to Rockingham, NC for a Div., and back. Then we went to Memphis, TN, then back, then same time went back to Rockingham, NC for a Nat event, stayed a full week there, then Englishtown, NJ (I won class there alone, barely by not much), after N.J. I headed home it was late May, and I needed to get this issue resolved or park the car, raced is a few times the rest of the year testing this or that (requested the combo be reviewed in Dec 1995, and Feb 6, 96' they set it back to the correct original 99HP, rather than 110HP,
the trip was expensive enough with zero inflow all outgo.
raced it a couple of times in 96 & Phoenix in 97 was last time.

2.5 decades of life got in the way a bit, kids, college, fun, and business and debt reduction. So, it stayed parked time to get it back out again...Next up the actual rest of the build and that nagging problem resolved!

But I collected during the recent rebuild project a bunch of very special parts that makes it what it is today, that were not even available, or I would never have either found, or been given access to back then, you can say perfect timing buys, others no longer had a use for them, they were hidden away and rat holed and I had a need so I asked and they parted with them for very reasonable prices, and I researched a lot!

Just 3- 1/8th mile passes are on the car right now.

Want to know how long Sunoco Purple or 110 standard lasts and how pure it is? we moved 13.5 years before I started this recent project, put a few gals of Sunoco 110 in the tank, to move it onto a trailer to the new house garage, Jan 10th, 2022, started draining the tank pumping out fine into a clear jug, no sediment, smells right, a tiny bit more red than purple, zero sediment and the injector is perfectly clean.

Heck I fired it up and heated the block to temp, before starting the teardown and disassembly (to help loosen all bolts easier), after I emptied and dropped the stock tank and drained out the last 2.5 gals, the tank had zero rust in it. Trust pure race gas I guess. As that is a lot of hot summers.

And saw that nasty little pc of 1/4" fuel vapor line all spiderweb cracked going to the vent and rollover valve. The Fuel Cell rule change allowed me to find it. (It also requires IF you add a fuel cell, you MUST remove the stock tank).

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

You sure have a good memory, maybe I missed it but what is your name .?

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Gary Lucier

and just was issued 7832 Stk and ET

They got real close to my old number last digit was a 9. That will work, TY NHRA.

Itching to see what it will run in the quarter now. I take good notes, details still come easy for me, names though never have. Going to Vegas on the 8th to find out. Do a little testing :D

It was a hard few years to forget, the best of times. And some of the worst frustrations ever, I cannot and never have been able to allow some inanimate mechanical object to defeat me, the job has always been to fix it!

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

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Though the car was painted a couple of times the engine bay was never empty until this 1st rebuild, so it was cleaned & done.

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Engine coming out after roughing out the elect. water pump and a few other items like getting rid of that nasty stamped steel ugly valve cover.

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It looked like 93K miles and 25 years of sitting.

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Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

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Bearings looked great, pistons not so much.

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The fuel cell upper bulkhead.

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Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Gary, Nice job.
I remember your name and Kingman, Az. I thought you had a turbo car but I may have been confusing you with Jeff Lee, back then.
I do remember your world tour, and I might have been at Atlanta Dragway when you were.
Are you thinking about going to the Bakersfield double ?

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Yes Mark, I remember you also, and you were there in Atlanta (Spring of 95') Jeff Lee had the turbo (mine is a single point upright Bosch TBI), and I am (Thinking about the double at Bakersfield, though My father-in-law is having very serious heart surgery in Phoenix on Sept. 26th, so we shall see if we can leave him alone or not at home after that is completed. and how the surgery goes.

The car was finished in late May 2023, after 14 months of a project, and immediately on the 19th, 20th and 21st of May I found out that The Kingman Street Legal Drags on Route 66/Andy Devine (an 1/8th mile track they set up in a week right here in Kingman usually 1 time a year), and they had held it last November (found out on the 18th reading our local newspaper that they were again running just a day later), so I was able to test the car on a short street track that next weekend at over 5,300' altitude. (I just live 3 miles away, at 5,352'. Only a bit higher.

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That pic is Route 66 Andy Devine Between the Andy Devine Exit of I40 to the East and Stockton Hill to the West (and the starting line and Tree are right in front of the Kingman P.D./ Martin Swanty Chrysler/Plymouth/Kia Dealership on the left, and runs down to NAPA on the right, and the far end is where the pits are down beyond the shutdown (near the DPS, Kingman Office), and the Park. (Not bad for a legal street drags event or 1/8th mile track they throw up in a week!)

I only got 3 passes over 3 days, but did use the time to seat the new Ross Pistons and Sealed-Pro rings a bit to the newly bored holes and final hone. A couple of easy 6,400 RPM passes (1 on street tires and 1 on my slicks, then a blast to 7,000, had to shift and lift and it was still pulling hard in low (but ran outta track)...Stiil don't know where the 1-2 shift will be yet, nothing has been open locally except Vegas this Summer on a few Friday Nights for the Summit Street Drags (and they don't waive any rules).

This Friday the 8th of Sept. we (my wife and I), are heading to Vegas (Test n Tune Friday afternoon/evening, and then Bracket TnT Saturday AM, then plan on running the 2 Summit Bracket races in Sportsman Both Saturday & Sunday), then make the decision on Bakersfield if everything works out perfectly. And I cannot wait to make some quarter mile passes with it after all the improves.

I have not raced that car since the Spring of 1997 and I am dying to get back to it! (either way I will probably be at Bakersfield, with or without the car).

I did go out to Vegas to the April 4 wide race and crewed (1st time crewing w/ him, so did not have a lot of watching/socialize time, so I could get his processes & procedures down as best I could), for Scott McClay w/ his C/ED Dragster in Comp Elim., and while there attempted to text GTX John Irving to catch up with him after many, many, many...too many years.

(I guess over the prior 25 years he may have changed his number), and though I cruised the Sportsman pits a couple of times in vain, I did not find he and Jon's fleet of beautiful cars. (I will post pics in a min. from the 4 wide in April). I am guessing he never received either my text or phone message(s).

Are you planning to have the EF/S there in Oct. at Bakersfield Mark? (BTW, Greg Hogue from Texas is also building an 84' Turbo/ Turbo Z Daytona for AF/S or BF/S that he picked up this last year or so, and we have been trading parts, info, etc.).

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

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Those were all from April's 4 Wide Nat's at Vegas, Pretty much my only view except for a couple of cruises and walks around the pits (and when I towed him up for for his runs).

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Ok, took me a long while to resize all my pics (or most of them at least I will use in this thread). The prior posted shows just a small bit of my build. I did race the car after 95 a few times in 96 and 97 and only on the west coast in Div. 7 from PHX to Sears Point (still classified wrongly at 110HP in GF/SA 25.00 Lbs/HP, though it could not possibly be competitive at that HP rating (Factory is 99).

After the nightmare but fun Drag & Drive "World Tour" as Mark Yacavone called it in a post above in 1995, I was determined to get the combo reviewed since I by then knew nobody except myself had ever campaigned this exact (Car & Engine), combo before in NHRA STK. Elim., and all the data that the NHRA Tech Dept had to go on (and that was completely confirmed when I was at Englishtown, NJ in May of 1995), were my prior runs & the performance, save just 2 Q passes on a very cool morning in February 1995 at the Winternats in Pomona, ca at -.700 under and a smidge more, that was never repeated elsewhere (either before or after, and getting worse by the event/ month).

So, in December 1995 (working again full time, no longer in SoCal, having moved before I left on the tour in 95' for some fun), now in N.W., AZ, I sent in a letter asking that my combo be reviewed, and on Feb 6th, 1996 I received the good news, a letter back from NHRA...They added my factory stock Intake # (that should have been on the sheet the whole time, as Dodge made that change mid year 84'), and reduced my HP on the TBI back to the factory advertised 99HP.

Jenny Craig'ing (a Car Diet was in order), therein lies another story the shipping wt. on a 1984 Daytona 2.2L / 135 CI TBI (Single Point -NON-Turbo edition base 2 door/hatchback coup automatic or stick), was never the 2,444 lbs. as the Classification guide still shows even now in Fall of 2023. (so for all that time I was doubly penalized).

I have the original 1984 Daytona Base (Stick man 5 spd. and Automatic 3 spd.), Turbo, and Turbo Z sales brochure (Manual or Automatic), incl. all specs and standard and options avail. on all the 1984 editions, and have recently downloaded the complete specs for each of the 84' model year editions from www.automobile-catalog.com provided them by The Chrysler Corp. (I though have yet to find an AMA spec. sheet- if 1 actually exists at all), but all the data I have found so far, and the original Window Sticker on the car agrees (I was there when my Mom picked it up from the Dealer at Cerritos Dodge in Feb. 1995 as a daily driver she purchased), all say the Curb Wt. on the base edition is 2,590 lbs, Shipping Wt. is 2,520. (Both 5 spd. Man./Stick and 3 spd. Automatic, both are Factory HP rated at 99HP, torque 121 lb-ft., 97" wheelbase 3-door coup body style (2 door hatchback), Both EFI (upright Bosch TBI units)-non-turbo (single point injector).

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Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

My car was sold with only 2 options (1 in California was standard equipment- California Emissions package as it was a California Car), and the other was A/C...The Base package, not even a radio, and we added a cheap Kraco stereo w/ cassette deck after it arrived home from the dealer (which is now trimmed to only 2 ounces and 1" deep, though it still lights up! And it makes the dash tower look right, though dated) No other options of any kind were ever purchased.

Then, my parts piles and indiv. weights of everything I have taken off the car, things added back, and the weight it is right now tells me by the real math (I still have everything, incl. the original A/C, Cat Conv., exhaust system, Windshield washer/wipers/ hdwre. , PS Pump/bracket/hoses, wipers/hdwre. stock tank/Filler Neck/pump/sender, engine splash plastics, etc. (I still have everything and have weighed each individual item) and the totals. The car originally weighed in at well into the mid 2,600 lbs plus range!

Just some of my recent deleted parts pile!



It currently is the lightest (before recent ballast additions), it has ever been since it left the assembly line in December 1984, and without driver it still weighs currently (2,455), or 10 lbs heavier than the classification data shows, and all the documentation and my parts pile weights (even subtracting the A/C and the CA Emissions pkg stuff, which were the first deleted items I took off in 1993-before ever racing the car in the first Div. or National event, shows it has never once weighed in anywhere close to the 2,444 Classification guide amount for Shipping weight.

Even Chrysler Corp lied...I figure (just a tiny bit on each car, sell/ship millions of units, and billions of dollars saved over time in shipping costs alone. (On a high HP combo, you may be able to get away with that, but if you only start w/ 99 HP, and each HP is rated at 25.00 lbs....it is a flat killer!

The classification guide says I have a DF/S Natural fit (2,444 lbs. HP Factor: 105, Power /Weight Factor 23.27, wheelbase; 97", Class Min. Wgt: 1,995 -Over/Under Shipping Wgt. -449 lbs. to get to the bottom of DF/S 1,995 car only). Min wt with driver would be 2,165. And to run weighted class in EF/S 2,625 car only, and w/ driver= 2,795.

But the real life actual is not reachable staying in line with the NHRA Rulebook whatsoever. Not everything is off that can possibly come off legally, but there is not 459 lbs. more that can legally be removed or lightened period. (At least not without removing the engine and putting it on the engine stand outside the car! (What I can do further under Sect. 11A is negligible and unrealistic to ever reach the bottom of DF/S =I would have to cheat huge!) And that is not an opinion, it is factual. Based in true reality. It should only be a natural fit in EF/S. (and no weighted class any longer exists). DF/S is a pipe dream w/ this combo.

Reality is, or should be (if truth was used instead of magic rainbows, wishes, and fuzzy fake unicorns), Curb weight: 2,590, Shipping weight:2,520, HP 99.0 (2,520/99=25.45 lbs/HP....Car fits now naturally in EF/S, can run to the bottom of the class 25.00 X 99=2,475+170 Driver =2,645 (adding 6 HP onto that is another 150 lbs., but I cannot yet find data that caused the addition just before 6/2/03), and when it ran last it was 2,755 min-ran at 2,763 @110HP (and that was classified by the NHRA Tech Director in San Dimas in 1993 in person with the car there). Currently sits at 2,645 as of today w/ me in it plus 60 lbs ballast added,, and Friday I will make passes without my wife in the car, and with her in the passenger seat to see what the differences really are.

Ok, after the tour, and receiving the reduction letter, I really knew I could not afford to do at that time everything I needed to do, to make the car competitive, so I parked it in 1997! There had been no prior machining done at all, head had only been off once for 30 mins. (in a mock partial teardown, I chemically fast cleaned piston tops and chambers, valve pockets and reinstalled it same stretched headbolts and gasket), and buttoned it up, and drove it from south of Atlanta to Memphis the next morning to race a Nat. Event then back to Atlanta. It had never even had a valve job, until the head work during this re-build in 2022/2023.

25 yrs. later...NEW YEARS EVE 2021 6PM, and I am watching a no-prep video Bill Hoskinson's channel w/ the SRC Gang out of Ohio, and my wife walked by and looked over my shoulder, and said "Do You Miss It?" (we have mentored High School Robotics for more than a full decade together plus, and due to covid-19 I have had to curtail a lot of my volunteerism for more than 2 yrs. and I thought she was talking about the robotics at the time...But, I said "Miss What?"

Her answer was "Drag Racing", my simple answer was "Every day for 25 yrs so far!" and she said, you know I will be retiring in about 6 yrs, so lets do something with that car in the garage! I then explained, even on a slow sled budget Stocker just how expensive a proposition that was as I am going as far as is legally possible this time around! And 10 days later I started "The Project Jenny Craig", unburied the dirty car not touched at all in the prior 13.5 yrs. (Looked like a barn find by then and surrounded by boxes and stuff!) Started this project January 10, 2022.

Cleaned her up, put it up on skates, checked the fuel system, and everything was fine though Sunoco Purple was now more like Sunoco Red, smelled fine, no sediment, clear, still smelled like race gas, charged up the battery labeled MFG Feb 09, and fired it up, heated it up to operating temp (to help break loose threads on bolts/nuts easier later and started Engine disassembly in the car, pre-measuring and mocking up things like switching the water pump from crank driven to a Moroso Electric driven, etc as I went along so I could have the adapter machined at the same time as the engine machining.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

Removed the Head and sent it w/ my avail. cams at the same time to Georgia (www.TurboDodgeParts.com for cleaning, resurfacing, full rebuild and it's very first valve job of any kind (a nice 3 angle comp. valve job), springs, rockers, lifters/etc., valves, seals...chamber cc'ing, and lift measurements on each cam I had then in hand.
I disassembled the balance checking measurements as I did so. And took my short block in for cleaning and measurements for new NHRA ACCEPTED Ross forged Replacement Pistons and Sealed-Pro Ringsets. That was April 4, 2022.
When the head returned, my machinist and I re-cc’d the head again, triple checking everything! (48.0 cc mins/we are still 50.3 cc’s avg., leaving a couple more milling attempts for the future).
Called Ed Ercis at Ross, and we worked together w/ my machinists and the Piston order (2 days later Stan set a new Record in EF/S with his Omni Station Wagon leaving only a 2 hundredths’ cushion to shoot for at -1.28 under), was finalized end of May 2022, (it was mid race season), Pistons Delivered Sept 28, 2022, lots of parts ordered and lots of work performed in the meantime, and lots and lots of parts order delays too (or out of stock/backordered for weeks to months).
w/ nearly 93K miles (Street/Hwy/Strip), and a lot of years (nearly 40), The Block had to be bored 20 thou over, and after the pistons were received, the final bore to finish hone and fit, was a total of 25 thou. over, same rods, same crank, same block (though he cleaned it so many times by then I would have eaten off any surface of that block, so clean I hated to paint it…I actually stared at it for 24 hrs before & after it was masked up for painting!) If I could have clear coated it I would have.

Re: A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.
 

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That old stamped Steel Valve Cover had to go, bought stripped, and machined, primed and painted, and artfully turned a TURBO one into a T B I Valve cover, and that also gets rid of that really weak Plastic PCV box as those have an inside baffle and a rear solid PCV nipple on em.

Painted the engine bay, and block, long block parts w/ DupliColor Gloss Black and Red w/Ceramic. (rattle can after cleaning fully, roughing and priming), but it covered well, and stands up to a lot.

Moved on to wiper delete, Stock Gas Tank Delete, then fabbed up the upper (powder Coated Red)/lower(powder Coated Blue 50 thou Alum. fuel cell bulkheads to Protect the new Jegs 5 gal Poly Fuel Cell w/ Sump, and a new EFI fuel supply system, and removed the Heat/A/C box from under dash and related stuff in the engine bay, filled the holes in the firewall, etc., converted Power Steering to manual, (and finished up the Moroso Electric water pump motor and related wiring adding a painless wiring breaker, and relay), so the only things robbing power from the crank are Timing Belt (Cam Crank, Intermediate shaft...Oil pump and Distributor), and 1 belt to the Alternator (still the 90 Amp stock 1). The water pump is still the stock pump, just extended out with an adapter, as 1 belt originally drove both alt and WP.

3 other interesting parts, a brand new (in 1985 that is, and still was brand new unused in 2023, purchased at an estate sale by a friend....$150.00 bucks shipped if you can believe that, and I was only asking for a used one I could rebuild to have as a spare, so the new one is on the car, I rebuilt my old 1 as the spare), and someone purchased, and never used, same part # Upper Bosch TBI Throttle Body that was ratholed away for years and still in the box (Cheap), and same thing with the cam (I will not talk as much about the cam to many), except to say it was in a record holder (a 2.2L in a Truck running stock in the early 2000's, and it was another great rathold find sitting on someone's shelf collecting dust that I collected for a song and only used for 2 events at that time. And an interesting distributor I have not tested yet (hall effect w/ internal springs and weights and a vacuum pod). That pc was also collecting dust and let go pretty cheap. Lotsa parts out there if you really look hard enough, and in the right places at just the right time...But those 3 were once in a lifetime accidental finds (X3), because I asked a lot of people a whole lot of questions over the years.

It (that Cam), gives this particular engine the sound and power it was always lacking. No more bwop, bwop, bwop, bwop...It cackles and crackles like a real Stocker finally. (And it measured right!)

New Master Cyl. and Power Booster, all lines flushed, checked, new rear shocks, and a lot of general repairs and new parts checking the car over from headlights to tail lights.